Maybe we should see the whole ceremony as a commentary on the cruel randomness of fate.
Only when I accept the sometimes cruel randomness of fate will I be able to call myself a survivor.
It's an acceptance of the randomness of fate and the role of chance in how a patient fares.
No doubt Dickens's sense of the randomness of fate and his own uncertain childhood combined to heighten his rage for order and control.
'It was very bad luck that this al-Qaeda cell happened to be driving past, saw us, pulled into a side street and decided to execute us.' But it has not led him to reflect on the randomness of fate.
Rather, he is a passive, diligent character, who reacts rather than initiates, who winds up a victim not of his own narcissism or foolishness, but of others' folly and the sheer, stupid randomness of fate.
These parallel or not so parallel lives are apparently meant to raise questions about the randomness of fate and the role that will and choice play in people's lives.
In both "Emporium" (set largely in America) and "The Orphan Master's Son" there is a heightened apprehension of the precariousness of life, the randomness of fate, the difficulty of emotional connection.
